Caution is required, but that doesn't mean one can't successfully use oven cleaner (the lye type) on aluminum. It depends how long one leaves the oven cleaner on the pot, and how much one is concerned with a pristine appearance on the pot. When I say "pristine", I mean how much the baked on grease bothers one compared to the slight degrading of the aluminum surface.
I've used the Easy Off extra strong stuff on a big aluminum pot I used for deep frying turkeys. The pot has a lot of burned on grease after doing that. One can see a definite reaction of the oven cleaner on the aluminum, but relative to the thickness of the pot, it would take a long, long time to eat through it. A half hour is not going to cause a big problem. It will however change the appearance of the aluminum, giving it a dull finish of a different shade (darker or lighter I don't remember).
Stir Fry TonightDecided to do a simple Japanese style stir fry tonight. Had all the ingredients on hand and I've used this recipe a couple of times. This is the basic recipe, add anything else you...
I wouldn't use oven cleaner on any of the anodized aluminum finishes though, as it would eat through the relatively thin anodizing quite quickly and make the surface very splotchy in appearance.
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